


Double Feature

by Michelle Christian (movies_michelle)



Category: White Collar
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 20:52:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/141612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/movies_michelle/pseuds/Michelle%20Christian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the story he liked to tell them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Double Feature

This is the story he liked to tell them:

Neal loved the classics: the clothes, the manners, the style. The look and feel of a bygone time that had only existed in movies and the highest penthouses of the world.

("Head in the clouds, feet never touching the ground," Peter mumbled, not without affection.

"How else do you fly?" Neal asked.

"It's how you fall, too," Peter pointed out.

"Whose metaphor is this, anyway? Shut up.")

He loved the clothes and the style of the Rat Pack, who knew how to dress with style, sing with style, even get drunk with style.

("Bullshit with style," Peter interrupted again.

Neal gave him the full elbow this time.)

But he admitted, he was more attracted, romantically, to the 30s and 40s. Give him _Casablanca_ and _Notorious_. Rita Hayworth never looked lovelier than she did when she was in _Gilda_.

("Yeah, those are great romantic examples," Peter complained. "Nazis, murder, and people who rip each other apart."

"Honey, let Neal finish," Elizabeth says.

" _Gilda_ was about two people who fucked each other up so badly, they both simultaneously and independently decided to move to another continent, just to get away from each other!" Peter insisted. "Then fell in love with the same Nazi!"

"If I promise not to marry a Nazi just to get away from you, will you let me finish?" Neal asked earnestly.

"Why couldn't you go for _The Philadelphia Story_?" Peter continued. "Smart people saying and doing smart things. And two men competing for the smartest, most beautiful woman in the world." This last was directed at Elizabeth who kissed him and smiled.

"Aw. The Rat Pack weren't the only bullshitters," she said with a smile.

" _If_ I can continue," Neal said.)

The thing was, most of those romances didn't end well.

("Hah!" Peter said.

"Shh." Elizabeth elbowed him this time.)

Doing the right thing usually meant giving up your one true love. True love did not always equal happy, let alone happily ever after.

He realized, though, that he was living a different movie than he thought he was: it was _The Maltese Falcon_. Someone chasing after a dream he thought he wanted, but that turned out to be nothing but lead and ashes. Chasing after a girl who was nothing what she'd seemed.

The thing about movies, though, wasn't how they ended, but that they _always_ ended. They always changed the reels, and if you were really lucky, you'd get a double feature. And the second movie was always better than the first.

("So, we're your second feature," Peter asked, lounging back on the bed, grabbing Neal around the waist.

"Nah," Neal said kissing him. "Elizabeth is my second feature. You're just the Milk Duds."

Elizabeth laughed. "It's okay, honey. We love Milk Duds.")

-30-


End file.
